SEATTLE, WASHINGTON.- Erotic art is becoming more and more popular in museums and galleries, as a growing mass of collectors are openly enjoying and willing to pay top dollar for the aesthetic and sensual thrills of this previously forbidden art form. "There’s a realization that art can be sexy and erotic and you can show it in your home. It’s becoming more permissible," said Allena Gabosch, director of The Wet Spot, a not-for-profit group that organizes the annual Seattle Erotic Arts Festival. "I find great pleasure in art that affects all of my senses." More and more people seem to agree, judging from the festival’s attendance, which doubled to 4,000 in its second annual show in the first weekend of February. On display were 500 works priced from $40 to $10,000, by 187 artists from 10 countries. Photo-realistic paintings of pin-up fantasy women by Hajime Sorayama sell for as much as $25,000, while those of Olivia De Berardinis go for up to $75,000.

"Forbidden art" used to be hidden away or published only in the underground press. Now, Tom of Finland’s fantasy sketches, featuring incredibly well-endowed masculine gay men, are on permanent display in museums in Portland, Oregon; Los Angeles; San Francisco; and Helsinki, Finland. "We’re moving toward becoming more comfortable with human sexuality, so that those artists creating (erotic art) will have a lot more vehicles to showcase their work," said Mr. Dehner of the Tom of Finland Foundation. Controversial gay photographer Robert Mapplethorpe has also become an icon.

The difference between art and pornography is clear to "Miss Naomi," who has acquired 4,000 museum-quality works worth millions of dollars over 12 years. "Pornography gives you one message -- Let’s get it on, let’s have sex," said the author of "Forbidden Art: The World of Erotica" and "Visions of Erotica". "Erotic art engages you in a thoughtful process. It’s an interpretation about it, the talent, the unusual or beautiful way the art is displayed." Among her notable artifacts is a 31-inch-long white fiberglass phallic sculpture used as a murder weapon in the movie "Clockwork Orange." Miss Naomi, who paid $3,000 for it in 2000, has it insured for $15,000. She estimates that many items have tripled or quadrupled in value since she bought them.